In a home network of computing devices, each of several networked devices may have particular components or capabilities for performing one or more functions. One of the devices in the home network may be connected to a communications pathway through which computer systems external to the home network are accessible. The external communications pathway may be used to provide entertainment content and other types of content to the home network. The process of providing content from an external system to a device on the home network may be referred to as downloading content. The use of the external communications pathway to download entertainment content to the home network may interfere with another activity for which the external communications pathway is required, such as exchanging electronic mail messages or browsing content.